Congress ticks off Jairam for praising Aam Aadmi Party

Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday drew flak from the Congress for praising the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), suggesting that it should not be taken lightly and equating it with a “dashavatar” which could assume different shapes in different States.

While Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi did not name Mr. Ramesh while criticising him, it was evident who he was referring to as he also denounced the other statements he made such as giving credit to Anna Hazare for the passage of the Lokpal Bill and stating that the Congress would not have found itself in the present situation had it passed the Bill two years ago.

The party’s anger was reflected in the manner in which Mr. Dwivedi also questioned Mr. Ramesh’s credentials to raise these issues. Such remarks, he said, could only have come from someone who had not gone through the rigours of party work and yet risen to prominence. “Only those persons have illusions, who themselves are not political workers, who have not suffered the pain,” he said.

Mr. Ramesh had in his statement cautioned the party against taking the AAP lightly: “Making fun of them would be proved wrong.”

Reacting to this, Mr. Dwivedi said it would not be correct to jump to conclusions about the AAP just yet, as it had only won in one State and was yet to fulfil its commitments. “The AAP raised an issue, the party was formed, it got support and they formed the government in a State. The issue was corruption.”

But, he said while the AAP has got support on the issue, it was now time for it to deliver on the promises it made to come to power.

“It is another thing to get support by raising an issue, by raking up sentiment... but some system is needed even to run an arrangement. And for running a system you need both ideology and organisation.”

In the case of the AAP, he said a perceptible change was visible with people now moving towards power politics. “It may happen that the number of its founders may be overtaken by those joining the party for power. What will be the party’s future then?”

Ramesh, your days in Congress are numbered if you call a spade a spade. Learn from Ajit Maken, Digvijay Singh and Dr MMS. Wait for the pronouncements of the first family and fine tune your responses in line with those. Free thinking in Congress was shelved by Indira Gandhi and the family tradition continues.
You are doing a good job and the country does not want you to get sidelined like VP Singh (free thinker of a different era).

from:
mani sandilya

Posted on: Jan 10, 2014 at 08:06 IST

Even Rahul Gandhi praised AAP when Delhi election results were announced! Is Mr. Dwivedi is referring to Rahul?

from:
Ilango

Posted on: Jan 10, 2014 at 08:04 IST

When the scion of the ruling dynasty praised AAP or decried the Maha Govt for rejecting the Adarsh probe pannel report it was acceptable.Jairam,has yet to learn the rules of the INC.

from:
Kandasamy Kommaraswamy

Posted on: Jan 10, 2014 at 08:02 IST

Cynics like Janardan Dwivedi are commonplace but it requires a strong and resonant leadership from the AAP to prove them wrong once for all.Selfish power mongers should be shown the door by the AAP leadership.